Liturgy 6

The Festal Year

The repetitive daily sequence of the Divine Office and Mass was relieved by the festive cycle of the year.  Events associated with the birth and Passion of Christ were part of the "Temporale."  Some of these feasts were fixed by the movements of the sun: the coming (Advent) and birth (Nativity) of Christ belong to the season of the winter solstice and fall on the same calendar date each year.  The events associated with the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ, on the other hand, were fixed by the movements of the moon: Easter Day is the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21.   The calendar date for these feasts varies from year to year but the days of Easter Week are always the same (Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday).  Ascension and Pentecost are also moveable feasts, forty and fifty days after Easter.

The other great cycle of feasts was the "Sanctorale" which included events associated with the life of the Virgin Mary (Purification: February 2; Annunciation: March 25; Assumption: August 15; Nativity: September 8) as well as the saints.  The cathedral calendar includes both saints recognized universally, as well as saints of more local interest: at Amiens these include Saint Firmin Martyr (Invention: January 13; Birth: September 25; Entry into Amiens: October 10), Saint Ulphe, Saints Ache and Acheul, Saint Honoré: May 16, Saint Firmin Confessor: September 1, Sauve: October 29, Saints Fuscien, Victoric and Gentien: December 11.  John Baptist could be considered universal and local at the same time since the cathedral possessed (still possesses) his head: his birth was celebrated on June 24, his beheading on August 29 and the reception of his relic on December 17.  Particularly important was the feast of All Saints on November 1.  Feast days with a fixed date might obviously sometimes fall on a Sunday or upon one of the moveable feasts--liturgical books like the Ordinary and the Ceremonial were intended partly to resolve such conflicts

Feast days were classified in a hierarchy with the highest level being a great double feast, then semi-double and then small.  The highest level is magnum duplum cum eo, that is, with the presence of the bishop celebrating.  At the most important feasts canons had their beards and tonsures shaved, lighting was at its highest level with a full complement of candles, nine lessons were read at Matins, the precious relic châsses and silver retable were uncovered and bells were rung in the central steeple.  The celebration of the most important feasts began during Vespers of the previous day and might be carried over into the entire following week (Octave).

The feast days of the year were also commemorated in the sculptural programs of the portals: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany as well as the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the south portal, the feast of Saint Firmin and other local saints in the north portal and Easter at the center.